The Amarillo City Commission found no red flags Tuesday to stop its pursuit of a public-private partnership for downtown redevelopment.

Commissioners directed city staff to draft a deal creating the partnership with Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, a Sugar Land firm that has been involved in more than $1 billion in urban redevelopment in Waco and elsewhere.

The instruction came after commissioners heard extensive information collected about the company by city staff and the Strasburger Price law firm of Dallas. Commissioner Ron Boyd did not attend Tuesday's meeting.

Downtown Amarillo Inc., a nonprofit that supports downtown redevelopment, recommended Wallace Bajjali. But commissioners asked for more research after questions arose about whether DAI thoroughly vetted the company.

Headlines dating to 2006 allude to the developer's successes and court conflicts, and David Wallace has acknowledged his firm is accustomed to legal and political scrapes.

From 2006, when the firm was founded, to 2008, Wallace Bajjali launched 20 retail, office and residential developments valued at a combined $250 million, according to a Houston Chronicle report.

The Strasburger firm spent weeks examining Wallace Bajjali at a cost to the city of $45,000.

The money was well-spent to minimize the risk in a deal that could involve millions of dollars in development projects, City Attorney Marcus Norris said before Tuesday's meeting.

Norris and City Manager Jarrett Atkinson said the analysis was the deepest into a potential city vendor that city employees could remember.

Hiring Strasburger "to put them (Wallace Bajjali) through the grinder" was crucial, Commissioner Brian Eades said, because the Dallas firm "has no ax to grind or personal interest" in the outcome.

The examination produced thousands of pages of documents that will be made available electronically to the public, by request, Atkinson said.

The presentation covered civil lawsuits and bankruptcy actions in which Wallace Bajjali or its partners David Wallace or Costa Bajjali have been involved.

Several of the cases were filed in the early to mid-1990s, Norris told commissioners.

Lawsuits filed more than 10 years ago "are kind of the outer limit of relevancy when looking at business performance," he said.

In many instances, cases involved projects, contracts or deals in which Wallace Bajjali or one or both of the firm's partners held only a small financial interest and played no controlling role in decisions, Norris said.

The outcomes of the court cases showed that neither the company nor the partners was deemed liable with the exception of a case against Wallace in which he paid an agreed judgment of almost $81,180, Norris said.

"He honored the debt," Norris said.

One pending lawsuit alleges Wallace Bajjali defaulted on a loan for a Houston property and development project, the city analysis shows. The city can do further analysis once the lawsuit is resolved, but it must be adjudicated by a court, Norris said.

Wallace Bajjali Director of Economic Development and Public Policy Joe Esch, a former Sugar Land economic development director and Wallace, a former Sugar Land mayor, appreciated the vetting process, Esch said in a phone interview after the meeting.

"Having been in the public sector, we appreciate and value the need for the elected officials and city staff to be confident in their decision and thoughtful in their approach," Esch said. "We're just honored to unite with this resilient, robust community to build a single vision for the future."

DAI representatives said the city's exhaustive research mirrored the information they had discovered.

Wallace Bajjali has documented experience bringing private investment to the table and creating a process for soliciting public input regarding proposed redevelopment projects, said DAI President Les Simpson. Simpson is publisher of the Amarillo Globe-News.

Commissioners reiterated their confidence in DAI, which began as a commission-appointed board converted to a nonprofit organization. The city allocates funding to DAI for its role in attracting development for downtown.

"We made the right decision when we appointed these people to be on DAI," Eades said, nodding toward DAI members in attendance.

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http://ia.ita.doc.gov/ftzpage/letters/ftzlist-map.html
Click on this map and see where Amarillo is getting Foreign Trade Zone in Amarillo funded by our tax dollars. You can do your own research but it is a plot of land for China to be supposedly build to sell products here in the US The governors of the States has to approve these transitions. No wonder Alan Taylor retired the Mayor is stepping down and 2 commissioners not going for re election I don't think our tax dollars should go for the China development.

You're going to link people to Morning Liberty?! A site that has an entire section devoted to "UFOs & Aliens" with such wonderful headlines as New Age Lies – Book of Enoch Aliens Fighting for Earth – Colleen Thomas interview and Grab an Ark – Planet X is Shaking the Earth – John DiNardo interview. And who could forget the classic Top 4 Steps to NWO – 4th Reich is Ready? Call now! Equally gullible saps are waiting to take your money! With dreck like this who needs real news? For that matter, with in-country fear-mongering like this who needs terrorists from abroad? Please save these links for your chain emails and irrational thought sewing circles. /rant

So anyway, yeah. I hope this developer develops the heck out of downtown! Yay! Development!

Can this be stopped now before it is a done deal? A quote from the story : "Headlines dating to 2006 allude to the developer's successes and court conflicts, and David Wallace has acknowledged his firm is accustomed to legal and political scrapes." What? Really? Is this the only firm of this kind? They still have pending cases. Can someone in this town with the knowledge and ability file for an injunction to get this thing stopped before it is unstoppable. I would if I knew how to do those kind of things.

Kerry you sound like my Jenny. I once was with her when dey was protesting in our nations capital and alot of people listened. Altho everybody on the stage that I got to personally talk on said they agreed. I kno that cuz the guy wearin' the American flag said so.